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#52 - Will MacAskill - What Comes AFTER Superintelligence?

January 27, 2026 · 1 h 30 min

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Superintelligence is predicted to arrive within a decade. If that's true, then what comes AFTER? And how can we prepare for it?Which is why I sat down with one of the few people actively thinking about this: philosopher Will MacAskill. Will heads up Forethought, a research nonprofit focused on how to navigate the transition to a world with superintelligent AI systems. He’s also a former Oxford University professor, and a co-founder of the effective altruism movement. In this special Win-Win Live conversation, we discuss why “utopias” often fail, the growing risks of authoritarian lock-in, whether moral progress survives in a post-labor world,, and how the transition to a post-superintelligence world may be more crucial than the development AGI itself. Also, lots of chat about the sun, space and the high seas.


Chapters: 00:01:10 — Intro00:04:11 — Frameworks For Thinking about The Future00:06:40 — Why We Need to Think About These Questions Now00:10:50 — Post AGI Worlds00:14:16 — Blockers of Positive Futures00:20:11 — Hedonium00:23:45 — Universal Basic Resources00:29:23 — Suffering Risks00:33:52 — Viatopia00:37:50 — Can We Understand — and Steer — Moral Fashions?00:43:06 — Can AI Repair Our Shared Reality?00:49:45 — Pluralistic Futures: Choosing How We Want to Live00:54:57 — The Dangers of Elites Controlling AI01:03:14 — Can We Measure How Well We See the Future?01:06:50 — Purpose in a World of Abundance01:09:20 — Sci-Fi Ideas Worth Writing Now01:16:29 — Meaning in a Post-labor Economy 01:21:24 — How Does Moral Progress Actually Happen?01:27:45 — Will’s Call to ActionLinks: ♾️ Will MacAskill’s website: https://william-macaskill.com ♾️ Forethought: https://www.forethought.org/♾️ Essay on Viatopia https://www.forethought.org/research/viatopia♾️ What We Owe the Future (Will MacAskill): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1541618629 ♾️ Deep Utopia (Nick Bostrom): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1914741128 ♾️ Utopia (Thomas More): https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2130 ♾️ The Republic (Plato): https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1497 ♾️ Island (Aldous Huxley): https://www.amazon.com/dp/0061561791 ♾️ Anarchy, State, and Utopia (Robert Nozick): https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465051006 ♾️ The Archipelago (Scott Alexander): https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/04/09/the-archipelago/ ♾️ Grabby Aliens Model (Robin Hanson): https://grabbyaliens.com ♾️ The Fermi Paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox ♾️ WEIRD Psychology (Joseph Henrich): https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780374173227 ♾️ Protopia (Kevin Kelly): https://kk.org/thetechnium/protopia/ ♾️ Universe 25 (John B. Calhoun): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2636191/ ♾️ Dyson Swarm (Concept): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere ♾️ Effective Altruism: https://www.effectivealtruism.org ♾️ Giving What We Can: https://www.givingwhatwecan.org ♾️ 80,000 Hours: https://80000hours.org Credits:♾️ Hosted by Liv Boeree♾️ Produced by Luca de VicoThe Win-Win Podcast:Poker champion Liv Boeree takes to the interview chair to tease apart the complexities of one of the most fundamental parts of human nature: competition. Liv is joined by top philosophers, gamers, artists, technologists, CEOs, scientists, politicians and more to understand how competition manifests in their world, and how to change seemingly win-lose systems into Win-Wins.Podcast links:♾️ Website: https://www.winwinpodcast.com/♾️ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWgq0OZMtwtOIyMsVM_vksqdfWcM-b68S♾️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/03bGVUaFZmJUmEvSHNDPdI?si=64379cc23696454f ♾️ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/win-win-with-liv-boeree/id1724791350 ♾️ Pocketcast: https://play.pocketcasts.com/podcasts/7f708340-d17c-013b-f46e-0acc26574db2 #winwinpodcast #AI #superintelligence

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